This similitude is borrowed from the usage of an Eastern feast, in which the welcome of the host to his guests
is expressed by the precious unguents with which he anoints them on their entrance into his home. If they were
as little welcome as Jesus was in the house of Simon, this act of courtesy would be omitted; and the failure would
be at once noticed, and perhaps referred to, as when the Master recalled it, saying, "My head with oil thou
didst not anoint."
Love and respect could hardly manifest themselves more tenderly than by the costliness of the materials which were
compounded to compose the oil to be lavishly poured upon the head of the beloved guest. Myrrh, aloes, and cassia
would scent the garments with fragrance for many days, and would be a grateful memento of happy bygone hours. The
lavish anointing which Mary of Bethany shed on the head of her Lord must have refreshed Him during the weary hours
that followed, as the delicious scent stole up to Him from His dress, and reminded Him of the affection of one
true heart.
These unguents, so grateful and refreshing to the scorched flesh and heated brow, seem to have been kept in cruses
of alabaster, which were easily broken, so that their contents might be poured forth in lavish prodigality. How
little does love reck of cost! When once much forgiveness has started the flow of much love, then in the first
rapturous moments of conscious acceptance sinners will not count it waste to express their tumultuous emotions
in the expenditure of the contents of precious vases, as well as in tears and kisses, and acts of tender thoughtfulness
(Luk 7:38).
When the psalmist says that God Himself anoints him with oil, does he not mean us to infer that life is a feast,
in which we are guests, and God is Host? And does he also mean to teach that God greets us in love and welcome?
He is not niggardly or churlish, but glad to see us glad, and to make us happy; conferring on us luxuries as well
as necessaries; and taking pains, at great cost to Himself, to show us that He is well pleased to accept us, and
show us grace in the Beloved.
There are many proofs of this tender grace to mankind in general. There are gleams of light in most human lives,
in the love of tender friends, or in congenial surroundings, which speak God's welcome. To most men entering on
life there is the counterpart of the Eastern oil of welcome shed on the guest entering the festal chamber. Each
human life is greeted as it steps across the mystic threshold from the unseen. There is at least the mother's kiss,
the elasticity of youth, the keen sense of enjoyment in natural scenes, and the absence of foreboding care.
And the blessed God has so contrived and adapted our nature to the world in which we live that there is a very
ecstasy in life, and an abundance of natural joy and gladness, save where man has by sin vitiated and marred the
intentions of his Creator. "How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put
their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and
Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures." "Wine that maketh glad the heart of man, oil
to make his face to shine." "Likewise of the fishes as much as they would."
But though this is true of men generally, yet there is an especial anointing in which they can have no part. In
the Book of Exo 30:23-25 we have a description of a special kind of oil, "an oil of holy ointment,'' which
was to be used to anoint the tabernacle, and the ark, and the holy vessels, and also to consecrate Aaron and his
sons, the priests. But there were two special provisions attached to it: first, that it should not be imitated;
secondly, that it should not be poured "upon man's flesh." Each of these restrictions is worthy of note.
That it was not to be imitated surely teaches that it sets forth some special holy unguent in the divine chemistry
which has no counterpart in human experience. And when we further search into the sacred text, we find that, throughout
Scripture, oil is the symbol of the blessed Holy Spirit. And we are justified by many passages in reading this
thought into the glad exclamation of the psalmist. Oh, that we might realise more constantly that our gracious
Host, at whose table we sit, is constantly engaged in anointing us with the oil of the Holy Spirit!
These words with deepest significance might have been appropriated by our blessed Lord. "Unto the Son He saith,
God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows." And the Apostle Peter,
in the house of Cornelius, distinctly asserted such an anointing to have been communicated by the Father to the
Son. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power." And with this the united voice
of the persecuted but jubilant Church accords, when it rises around the person of "Thy holy child Jesus, whom
Thou hast anointed." Yes, and the Father did not give the Spirit by measure, but in unstinted abundance; the
heavens were opened, as in after-days the cruses of alabaster were broken, and the Holy Ghost descended (Luk 3:22).
There never was a time when Jesus was not filled with the Holy Ghost. But who can read the Scriptures attentively
and thoughtfully without discovering that the anointing of the Lord Jesus at the waters of baptism endued Him with
special ministerial qualifications? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me."
"I cast out devils by the Spirit of God."
Our Lord was anointed as priest. Every priest must be anointed with the sacred oil (Exude. Exo 29:21), and our
High Priest, though not after the order of Aaron, must not be without so sacred a designation to His office; and
thus the blessed Spirit descended and abode on Him, "like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down
upon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to the skirts of his garments." We are but as the skirts
of His garments, near His feet, where the pomegranates glisten amid the tinkle of the golden bells (Exude. Exo
28:33). Yet may we not claim and expect that, as the skirts of His robes, we shall receive the sacred chrism?
Our Lord was anointed as king. "Messiah'' means Anointed. "We have found the Messiah (which is, the Anointed)."
And in that magnificent Messianic psalm, in which, amid the rage of His foes, the Almighty designates His Son to
be the true King of men, it is distinctly stated, "Yet have I anointed my King upon my holy hill of Zion."
Is there not in these ; glowing words a resemblance to the scene when, into the midst of the merrymaking of Adonijah
and his fellow conspirators, by the stone of Zoheleth, which is by Enrogel, there broke a breathless messenger
with the tidings, "Verily our lord King David hath made Solomon king. And Zadok the priest and Nathan the
prophet have anointed him king in Gihon: and they are come up from thence rejoicing, so that the city rang again?"
"Halleluiah: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." The Man of Love is God's anointed Sovereign, and
though we see not yet all things put -under Him, they shall be, and the world shall come to respect the power of
God's irrevocable decrees.
We, too, are anointed priests and kings. Blood and oil were, as we have seen, used in the act of consecration.
Our Lord, therefore, having purchased us and washed us in His blood, hath anointed us to be kings and priests unto
God and His Father by the renewing of the Holy Ghost, "which He shed on us abundantly.'' Hast thou experienced
it, my reader? Or is this the bitter lack of thy life? Ah, there is no favouritism or partiality with our God!
That anointing is thine in the mind and intention of God; it is for thee to seek it, to appropriate it, and to
allow it to be the one blessed consciousness of thy life; so that thou mayst be able to adopt the apostle's unhesitating
assurance: "He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed
us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
Let us never attempt to perform the work of priests in offering the sacrifice of praise or prayer or devotion without
having sought for and obtained a fresh anointing. And let us be sure that it will be impossible for us to exercise
any kingly function, ruling over our inner nature, or sitting in conscious royalty with Christ on His throne, unless
we are perpetually conscious of the anointing grace of the blessed Holy Spirit.
It is our privilege to be anointed with fresh all (Psa 92:10). Such was the glad assurance of the man after God's
own heart. There is nothing stale in God's household economy. We do not need to live on dried fruits because winter
has stripped the trees. The power and joy of other days should be no subject for lingering regret; for our gracious
Host is able and willing to do as much for us, and more also, on each succeeding day of our life as in any day
of the past. Sigh not for the grace Of a day that is fled as if it will never come back. There are eternal stores
and reservoirs of golden oil in God's olive-trees, which shall pour down the golden pipes of faith, ministering
nutriment to the lamp of holy living; so that it shall not flicker throughout the long night, but even grow in
brilliance and radiating glory (Zec 4:12). Claim each morning to be anew anointed,-and with fresh oil.
These anointings will make us glad. It is "the oil of gladness." "How great is His goodness, and
how great is His beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids." "Oil to make
the face to shine." "Let Asher be blessed, and let him dip his foot in oil." The need of the world
is, shining faces; glad smiles; hopeful words; cheering toilers through the night; and feet elastic with joy, as
if bathed in its very fullness. To be without these is to miss the seal of sonship, which shall most surely authenticate
it before the eyes of all men, and to become a standing libel on the gospel of Christ. But if only we acquire them,
as we most certainly shall when we are daily anointed by the Holy Ghost, our fellows will be attracted by something
in our demeanour or looks which they cannot emulate or understand; and they will ask us to tell them the secret
of a joy which the world can not touch because its springs are hidden in a land where winter's frost is unknown.
These anointings will teach us as no human teacher could. "Ye need not that any man teach you," wrote
the beloved disciple to his little children: "but the same anointing teacheth you of all things." Fret
and impatience are often connected with the attainment of earthly learning from the lips of human instructors;
and often we miss the things we would most like to know. But there is nothing like this with our God. All His children
are conscious that when He teaches them their peace is great. No one instructs as He does. And when He undertakes
the tuition of the soul, there is no item in all the sacred lore of heavenly divinity which is omitted.
The effect of these anointings will be abiding. "The anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you."
Food which we have eaten abides in us, and when we are quite unconscious of its presence it is doing its work in
building up the fabric of our being. In some such way it must happen that the effect of a mighty spiritual blessing
does not pass away with the moment of its first advent to the soul; but it abides. And amid the pressure of daily
circumstance and toil and engagement, when the mind seems too set on its necessary work to have leisure for upward
springing, then the Spirit will pursue His chosen office of ministering grace and strength within. In other words,
we receive benefit from the anointing of the Holy Ghost long after the immediate moment of receiving it; the fragrance
still clings about our garments, the mollifying softness still lingers on our face.
Let us never rest satisfied with anything less than that indefinable and sacred grace called "unction."
We cannot analyse it or understand why it effects what learning and eloquence fail to accomplish. But we detect
it when it is present, we miss it when absent. With this the slightest words strike home to the hearers' hearts
as the message of God. Without it the most eloquent sentences are like unfeathered arrows, which fall useless at
the archer's feet. Withhold what Thou wilt, O God, but give us the unction, i, e., the anointing, of the Holy Spirit!
"Thou anointest my head with oil." "Lord, not my head only, but also my hands and my feet!"